Matthew's Blog
Good Bye, Black Swan. Hello Inuksuk
I have just completed 183 consecutive daily blog posts—a content rich, one-half year block of blogging! So what am I going to do to mark and celebrate this occasion? I am pulling out out my jade inuksuk piece and putting it it on my desk this week. (I have a...
Personal Healthcare Decisions: Logos, Ethos, and Pathos
In my recent post, Wicked Problems And Vending Machines, I mentioned the triad of Logos (Logic), Ethos (Character), and Pathos (Emotion), the core elements of a persuasive argument as described by Aristotle. However, I believe this is also a useful model of the...
Hesitancy, Obstinacy
Here’s the Oxford English Dictionary definition of hesitancy: The quality or condition of hesitating; indecision, vacillation; an instance of this. And here’s the Oxford English Dictionary definition of obstinacy: The quality or condition of being obstinate; obduracy,...
Being All-In
In the photograph above, my one-and-a-half-year-old cat Roo is “all-in” when it comes to being in this storage drawer. He is fully committed to the experience. As a physician, I know—physically, mentally, and emotionally—what it means to be all-in on a career. I have...
Vitruvius and Post-it Notes
I love Post-it Notes. I’ve written about them before (Sticky Notes: A Simple “Idea-Capture” Technology), but some things are just so fabulous it’s OK to write about them more than once. Consider the famous quote by the Roman Architect Vitruvius: Firmitas,...
Twitter and The Oxford English Dictionary
The online Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is my go-to resource whenever I want to dive deeply into a word's meaning. Why? Well, here’s one of several reasons: In their word usage sections, the OED is not afraid to use examples from Twitter. For example, consider the...
Why I Blog Every Single Day
I’ve blogged a few times about my approach to blogging (Ex: Who Am I Blogging For?, My Photography-Blogging Relationship, Blogging For Myself), but it’s not until recently that I have been able to clarify why I have been blogging every single day for the last...
Innovation for $148.82
I believe that innovation doesn’t always come with a high price tag. Sometimes all it takes is putting together existing tools and relationships in a new way and then taking action. Here’s an example I am currently working on. At a recent medical conference on...
Covid19 Travel Dibs
My last trip was to San Francisco in February 2020 as a Medical Advisory Board member for a healthcare tech startup. Masks weren’t yet a thing, but elbow bumps had just started. So, effectively, I haven’t traveled out of state for over a year, and I am getting...